Ops Insights #031 Building Your Grateful Patient Program

November 24, 2023 | Read Time: 3 minutes | Written by Jenny Kleintop

Building a Grateful Patient Program can be a game-changer for your nonprofit organization if you work in healthcare philanthropy.

Over the years, the terminology has shifted from building a Culture of Philanthropy to building a Culture of Gratitude or Generosity. Nonetheless, building and nurturing this type of program is key to maximizing the opportunities for patients to express their gratitude and contribute to your cause.

First, you want to understand the benefits of having a Grateful Patient Program. Here are three of them:

  • Patients naturally want to give back when they are grateful for the care they received. It’s often part of the healing process.

  • Grateful Patient Programs provide diverse funding streams, including major gifts, planned gifts, mid-level giving, and annual giving.

  • Hospitals see repeat visits, offering multiple opportunities for patients to express their gratitude and contribute to your cause

Then, you want to activate strategies to get started.

Know and Adhere to the HIPAA Guidelines:

  • Ensure your patient admissions form includes a disclosure that you can use the patient’s information for fundraising purposes, with a non-burdensome opt-out mechanism (such as a local phone # and an email).

  • Adhere strictly to HIPAA guidelines, limiting access to demographical information, dates of service, department of service, and treating physician details.

  • Record and honor opt-outs consistently to build and maintain trust with patients.

Optimize Data and Workflows for Efficiency:

  • Implement a referral order in your clinical system for caregivers to make a referral to philanthropy. It’s similar to how they refer patients to specialty doctors. Also, establish other streamlined workflows for making referrals easy.

  • Collaborate with your IT to create regular data streams and consider partnering with a vendor to wealth screen patient names regularly. Some vendors even have artificial intelligence (AI) for predicting likelihood by comparing a patient’s journey with other patients who have donated.

  • Automate workflows while personalizing outreach to manage your various pipelines, such as major gifts, planned gifts, mid-level giving, and annual giving. 

Focus on Caregiver Partnerships and Referrals:

  • Help caregivers learn to recognize the signs of gratitude and a patient’s desire to give back and how giving plays an important role in the healing process.

  • Foster caregiver partnerships by incorporating training sessions to build a culture of gratitude. There are plenty of experts who can help educate and train caregivers, as hospitals often gain more traction by bringing in outside resources. Talk to your peers and see who they use.

  • Encourage caregivers to loop in philanthropy partners when patients express their gratitude, such as when they hear patients say, “How can I say thank you?” or “Is there something I can do for you and your team to say thank you?”

Additional Resources

The Association of Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) is an international professional organization dedicated to those in philanthropy at healthcare organizations.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law that protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.

The Association of Advancement Services Professionals (AASP) is an association dedicated to helping the operation’s side of philanthropy and has best practices around topics such as screening workflows

Take Action

Take advantage of these key takeaways to build your grateful patient program.

Remember, if it starts to get overwhelming, start small. Take one or two of these tips and run with them. Then over time, you’ll see you’ve built a program in no time.

You’ve got this!


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Ops Insights #032 Philanthropy Operations Areas

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